“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Monday, December 19, 2016

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

BERLIN

The driver of the big rig that barreled into a crowded Christmas
market in Berlin on Monday — killing at least 12 people and injuring
scores more — is a Pakistani refugee who arrived in Germany earlier this
year, local reports say.

Sources told the German newspaper “Die Welt” that the suspected terror suspect came into the country on February 16, according to the Telegraph.

The man has been arrested in the past for minor criminal offences unrelated to terrorism, the sources said.

Another Berlin paper, Der Tagesspiegel, reported earlier that he was believed to be either Pakistani or Afghan.

Two senior German officials later confirmed to The Washington Post that the man was, in fact, believed to be a Pakistani national who arrived as an asylum seeker.

German authorities have yet confirm the identity of the driver or his nationality.

The fact that he is an alleged asylum seeker from Pakistan will
surely spark widespread outrage in Germany following Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s decision last year to allow nearly 1 million migrants from the
Middle East enter the country.

“When will German rule of law strike back? When will this accursed
hypocrisy end? These are Merkel’s deaths!” tweeted Marcus Pretzell,
European parliament member from the right-wing Alternative for Germany, according to the Washington Times.

Germany has been a popular target for terrorists in 2016.

The Islamic State has already claimed responsibility for at least two
attacks in the country — both of which were committed by asylum
seekers.

Just last week, German prosecutors revealed that they were probing an
incident involving a 12-year-old boy who allegedly planned to use a
nail-bomb attack to slaughter people at a Christmas market in the
southern city of Ludwigshafen.

According to the Washington Post, investigators told local media that
they believed the youngster — who holds dual German and Iraqi
citizenship — was being directed by a member of ISIS.

115 comments:

Politicus USAReacting to the news that 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured after a truck drove into a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, President-Elect Donald Trump issued a statement capitalizing on the tragedy and blaming “ISIS and other Islamist terrorists” for the attack – before any hard facts about motives have been released.

Full statement from Trump:

Our hearts and prayers are with the loved ones of the victims of today’s horrifying terror attack in Berlin. Innocent civilians were murdered in the streets as they prepared to celebrate the Christmas holiday. ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad. These terrorists and their regional and worldwide networks must be eradicated from the face of the earth, a mission we will carry out with all freedom-loving partners.

As he did frequently throughout his campaign, Trump is again exploiting a tragedy in order to push an anti-Muslim narrative. After all, blaming an entire religion for the senseless violence of a few is a whole lot easier than actually knowing what you’re talking about. It’s a simple way to frame what is a much more complex issue – one Trump likely doesn’t know how to address in a thoughtful, honest way.

Like many of Trump’s “shoot first, aim later” statements following various world tragedies, this one was rooted in no hard evidence. It’s only been hours since news of the attack broke and very little known information has come out.

As Germany’s own interior minister said a short time ago, “There is a psychological effect in the whole country of the choice of words here, and we want to be very, very cautious and operate close to the actual investigation results, not with speculation.”

Caution? Allowing an investigation to play out without running your mouth? What a novel concept.

A truck crashed through a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 50 on Monday evening. The German government said the horrific incident was an 'attack' but the White House termed it a terrorrist attack.

...

The United States condemned the attack saying it was an apparent "terrorist attack". "We have been in touch with German officials, and we stand ready to provide assistance as they recover from and investigate this horrific incident," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

TURKISH POLICE OFFICER MURDERS RUSSIAN AMBASSADORWhat did Erdogan know, and when did he know it?December 20, 2016 Robert Spencer

An off-duty police officer named Mevlut Mert Altintas, screaming “Allahu akbar” and making the raised index finger gesture that has come to be a signal of allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), murdered Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, at an art exhibit in Ankara on Monday. Altintas was reportedly a “member of the special ops unit in Ankara” – raising the question of what did Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan know, and when did he know it?

As he murdered Karlov, Altintas shouted: “Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria! Do not forget Aleppo! Do not forget Syria!” Russia, of course, has greatly aided the Assad regime to retake Aleppo and driving jihadi “rebels” back. Altintas’ Islamic State signal, unless it was a deliberate feint, could have indicated that he was loyal both to Erdogan and to ISIS, both of which are arrayed against Russia.

Erdogan hates Assad and has vowed to unseat him; what’s more, there are numerous indications that he wants to co-opt the Islamic State into a new Ottoman caliphate. His contempt for Kemalist secularism, and consistent and determined efforts to erode it away, have been noted for years. Also frequently noted is the fact that Erdogan has frequently been accused of “neo-Ottoman” tendencies – that is, of wanting to restore the caliphate. Turkey, after all, was the home of the last caliphate, the Ottoman Empire. It is highly possible, therefore, that Erdogan sees the Islamic State less as an enemy than an opportunity: he may envision it defeating his other enemies, such as the Kurds and Assad’s Alawite regime in Damascus, or at least holding them at bay until the opportunity arises for him to move in and reap the benefits of the Islamic State’s activities, transferring the seat of its caliphate to Istanbul, and perhaps even installing himself as the caliph.

That scenario would explain why in September 2014, Erdogan’s Turkey refused to sign a pledge committing the nations of the Persian Gulf region to fighting the Islamic State, even though that pledge was so toothless as to specify that the participating nations were only committing to fighting ISIS to the extent that each deemed “appropriate.”

Around the same time, Barack Obama and John Kerry have failed in repeated efforts to persuade the Turkish government to move against the Islamic State’s black market in oil. Turkish authorities explained that 49 Turkish diplomats were being held hostage in the Islamic State, and claimed that if Turkey struck ISIS too hard, those diplomats would be endangered. The Pentagon even spotted oil tanker trucks moving Islamic State oil in Turkish territory, but declined to strike them for fear of further weakening what was not much more than a paper alliance at that point and is even weaker now.

But Erdogan is clearly much more concerned about the Russians than about the Americans. After all, Barack Obama agrees with him that Assad must be toppled before there can be any effective action against the Islamic State. The Russians, on the other hand, are aiding Assad as a bulwark against the Islamic State, thereby thwarting Erdogan’s caliphate dreams and eroding what he would take over if he were able ultimately to co-opt the ISIS caliphate.

So did Erdogan order the assassination of Andrey Karlov? After Erdogan was widely accused, with considerable justification, of engineering a coup attempt against himself several months ago so as to give himself a pretext to move against his political enemies, this possibility cannot be dismissed.

And even if none of this is the case, and Erdogan had nothing to do with Karlov’s murder, the rapid re-Islamization of Turkey, and its fundamental realignment as an Islamic state rather than a Western-oriented secular one, cannot be denied. Accordingly, even the fact that Turkey is still considered by U.S. officials to be an ally against the Islamic State manifests the crying need for a thoroughgoing reevaluation and realignment of U.S. foreign policy, which is still based on old Cold War models, procedures, and alliances that not only do not apply to the struggle against the global jihad and against the Islamic State in particular, but are actively counterproductive.

As the swamp is drained in Washington, the sham alliance with Turkey needs to be seriously reexamined.

Keith Ellison Is a Muslim—and the Man to Lead the Democrats Into the Future

Clean, grassroots, and progressive, this option is a party outsider. He is pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and a human rights campaigner. As the second congressman to endorse Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries, he has shown that he saw what the Democrat-elite fatefully failed to see.

This option therefore has the backing of the Sanders revolution that never was, and has the chance to resurrect some of that hope the young then felt when they asked us all to Feel the Bern, and we didn’t listen.

Keith Ellison is an African-American and currently co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Despite being elected in a post 9/11 world, he was the first Muslim Congressman. And all of this sends a perfect message to President-elect Trump, symbolizing the opposite of the worst excesses of the Trump campaign.

In a call Thursday night with members of the liberal grassroots group Democracy for Action, Rep. Ellison said he was keen to help the party move forward: “My shoelaces are tied up tight, and I’m ready to get out on that court.” He announced his candidacy on Monday.MoveOn.org, a major progressive network, also said in a statement that Ellison would be “an excellent DNC chair.” Bernie Sanders has already declared his hand, backing Ellison.

Ellison’s value is in the potential for the DNC to show that it has learned its lesson, and that it is finally—better late than never—listening to the outsiders who want change, and who are not stained by spending too many years greasing palms.

And Ellison’s value is in the signal his selection could send to the rest of the world.His selection would be a beautiful reminder to concerned citizens everywhere that the USA is not only the inward-looking America of Donald Trump, but that it is also the America of this outward-looking, progressive black Muslim from Minnesota, who swore his Congressional oath of allegiance on the Holy Quran.

Public Papers of the PresidentsRonald Reagan - 1982: Book IRonald Reagan1982: Book ILocation:

District of ColumbiaWashington

The American Presidency Project

I can't help but say—thank you all very much—but I can't help but recall that I was in Iran on the day that the first coup took place by the Soviet Union in their overthrow there of the government.

I take particular satisfaction in signing today the proclamation authorized by Joint Resolution No. 142, which calls for the commemoration of March 21st as Afghanistan Day throughout the United States. This resolution testifies to America's deep and continuing admiration for the Afghan people in the face of brutal and unprovoked aggression by the Soviet Union.

A distinguished former Secretary of State, William P. Rogers, is coordinating the observance of Afghan Day in the United States. He not only has my strong support but that of former Presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon and former Secretaries of State Muskie, Vance, Kissinger, and Rusk.

The Afghans, like the Poles, wish nothing more, as you've just been so eloquently told, than to live their lives in peace, to practice their religion in freedom, and to exercise their right to self-determination. As a consequence, they now find themselves struggling for their very survival as a nation. Nowhere are basic human rights more brutally violated than in Afghanistan today.

I have spoken on occasion of the presence of unsung heroes in American life. Today, we recognize a nation of unsung heroes whose courageous struggle is one of the epics of our time. The Afghan people have matched their heroism against the most terrifying weapons of modern warfare in the Soviet arsenal. Despite blanket bombing and chemical and biological weapons, the brave Afghan freedom-fighters have prevented the nearly 100,000-strong Soviet occupation force from extending its control over a large portion of the countryside...

From now on, crimes must be reported on the police website without mentioning basic descriptive information such as “height, skin colour, nationality and race, etc.” the memo, seen by Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), reads. According to the paper, the new regulation could be applied to everything “from minor traffic accidents to serious crimes like muggings, beatings and murder.”

The memo makes it clear that the instruction has been handed down to avoid accusations of racism, telling officers: “The police are sometimes criticised for reporting on peoples’ skin colour. We are perceived as racist. As the police are not racist, nor should be perceived as such, from now on, please apply these instructions.”

Dated 15 September 2015, the memo was written by press officers Wolf Gyllander and Carina Skagerlind just weeks after a number of girls were sexually abused by migrant men at a free youth music festival in Stockholm; crimes which the police have now been accused of covering up. Thefts also occurred at the event.

Following the outcry over large-scale sexual attacks across Europe on New Year’s Eve, it emerged that 38 separate reports of rape and sexual assault were made to the police in 2014 and 2015, yet the police failed to mention them in their reporting of events, instead telling the public that the festival had passed off without incident.

“We should certainly have written and told people about this, no doubt. Why it did not happen I do not know,” Mr Gyllander told the press. Claiming that there may have been “legitimate reasons,” he promised to investigate.

The US "got it wrong" about Saddam Hussein and Iraq, the CIA analyst who interrogated the former dictator has said.

US 'got it so wrong' on Saddam Hussein, says CIA interrogator of the Iraq dictator

'We never thought about using weapons of mass destruction,' former Iraqi ruler told CIA

John Nixon had numerous conversations with the deposed leader and now says that America was critically mistaken about their intervention Iraq in a number of ways.

In particular, he claims, the CIA’s view of Hussein’s attitude to using chemical weapons was wrong.

They were also mistaken about his health, personal habits and his involvement in running Iraq.

Mr Nixon also criticised the conduct of George W Bush, under whose leadership America invaded Iraq, saying the former president heard “only what he wanted to hear” on the topic.

During the interrogations, Mr Nixon asked Hussein if he’d ever thought of engaging in a pre-emptive strike with WMDs against US troops based in Saudi Arabia.

According to Mr Nixon, writing in the Mail on Sunday, the former dictator’s reply was: “We never thought about using weapons of mass destruction. It was not discussed. Use chemical weapons against the world? Is there anyone with full faculties who would do this? Who would use these weapons when they had not been used against us?”

Another exceptional genius, George W. Bush, supported by genius Hillary, the magnificmnt Hillary who learned from exceptional John Paul Bremner, went on to bring our collective wisdom and exceptional experience and expertise to Libya and Syria, under the careful guidance of exceptional Barack, all this collective exceptionalism being rocked by the stone cold moron Trump out to destroy the planet and possibly the galaxy.

It is a bit late to reveal all this, after a few million Iraqi civilians dead, the rise of the Islamic Front in Iraq due to the vacuum we created, which then eventually spread its tentacles across Syria and across the Middle East. All thanks to the 'minor' policy misjudgement and the liars, Bush and Blair. The consequences of this are going to be with us a very long time, and nobody knows where it is going to end.

Anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-Muslim sentiment is resonating with more and more voters in Europe.

In the wake of the Brexit vote in Britain and the recent Italian referendum, and with national elections looming in 2017 in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, there is concern that Europe may be inundated by a populist wave, driven in large part by right-wing parties exploiting anti-globalization, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim sentiments.

Indeed, the strategy seems to be working: Polls show that people who have a favorable view of the National Front (FN) in France, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands tend to be more negative about immigrants, refugees, and Muslims than their fellow countrymen. In addition, they are more euro-skeptic and more wary of globalization than their compatriots.

I'll simplify this. If a Catholic pedophile or homosexual priest commits a crime, it will be a Catholic that turns him in, charges him and prosecutes him. I have yet to hear of a Catholic priest claiming he did his sordid act for Jesus.

There is no moral equivalence to the morally squalid death cult of radical Islam. There is no moral or ethical depravity that sinks below the sediment in the human cesspool of radical Islam.

That's all I can say at the moment, I'm getting ready to pick up the new mutt. He was what is euphemistically called neutered yesterday. The shelter says he fine but his bark is now a couple octaves higher and it has a decided lisp. Oh well.

Anyway, I'll be back. You know I can't pass up the chance to mock (with extreme prejudice) you and your fellow sheeple.

'Negative ISIS numbers' and insanity and brutality and stupidity all around -

TALE OF TWO CITIESThe Fall of Aleppo Is a Huge Gift to ISISMICHAEL WEISSHASSAN HASSAN12.18.16 6:00 PM ET

Yet the likely agents of revenge may well end up being the hardline jihadists, which the U.S. government now claims, absurdly, to have lost 50,000 combat-ready personnel in the last two and a half years of war. ((((The earliest CIA estimate of ISIS’s order of battle, in 2014, was between 22,000 and 30,000, and so we must now be into “negative ISIS” numbers, as one U.S. army colonel witheringly told us last week.))))

Whatever remains of ISIS’s garrisons, only a few thousand are currently holding their ground in Mosul, where the Iraqi and U.S.-led operation to liberate that provincial capital has stalled and where a staggering 50 percent of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism strike force, the Golden Division, has sustained casualties. This are an integrated corps of professional regulars—Sunnis, Shia, and Christians—doing the heavy lifting against the caliphate. And if this rate or attrition continues, the Golden Division will be rendered combat-ineffective within a month. That would either put the entire battle for Mosul on hold indefinitely or force Baghdad to rely on less reliable units, such as the Shia which have recently become official arms of the Iraqi state.

Meanwhile, a mere 50 to 200 ISIS fighters managed to overtake the Assad-Putin-Khamenei axis in Palmyra, just as East Aleppo was being stormed by it.....

Turkish police detained six people over the killing of the Russian ambassador, state media said on Tuesday evening, widening a probe to relatives of the off-duty policeman who shouted "Don't forget Aleppo" as he gunned the envoy down.

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Turkey faces multiple security threats, including from Islamic State. Earlier this month a spokesman for the hardline Sunni Muslim group urged global sympathisers to carry out new attacks, singling out Turkish diplomatic, military and financial interests as preferred targets.

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The gallery where the shooting occurred is opposite the US embassy. A gun was fired in front of the embassy overnight and the United States said its three missions in Turkey would be closed on Tuesday.

Score one for the post-colonial underdog. India’s economy has reportedly overtaken the United Kingdom’s for the first time in over 100 years, now standing as the world’s sixth-largest economy by GDP after the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France. The milestone is a symbol of India’s rapid economic growth and, conversely, the U.K.’s post-Brexit slump.

Economically, it’s been a banner year for India. In February, it surpassed China as the world’s fastest-growing economy. And in October, the International Monetary Fund predicted India would retain that title for the foreseeable future; its GDP is projected to increase by 7.6 percent through 2017.

“India may have a large population base but this is a big leap,” Kiren Rijiju, India’s minister of state for home affairs, said of the news earlier this week.

India’s former colonial ruler, the United Kingdom, is projected to grow by only 1.8 percent in 2016 and 1.1 percent in 2017. Since it voted to leave the European Union in June, which could entail leaving the EU’s lucrative common market, Britain’s economy and currency have struggled.

India’s economy benefitted from a global commodities price slump through large trade gains and lower-than-expected inflation, according to the IMF. And since elected in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has driven sweeping market reforms to spur economic growth....

Sen. Angus King, Maine Independent, said Tuesday that the apparent assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Monday appears to be primarily political, and not religious, in nature.

“It appears that the attack in Turkey on the Russian ambassador wasn’t a religious attack, but was a political one — revenge for what’s going on in Aleppo,” Mr. King said on CNN’s “New Day.”Mr. King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said a separate deadly attack in Berlin does appear to be a jihadist one and that a separate attack in Switzerland was actually carried out on a Mosque.

“It’s a complicated situation, and just to say it’s all Islamic terrorism, I think, is … not the correct answer, as I said, and … will only inflame tensions and could conceivably make [them] worse,” he said.Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot to death while giving a speech at a photo exhibition in Ankara Monday. The assassin shouted about the Syrian city of Aleppo and yelled “Allahu Akbar” before getting killed in a shootout with police.

If we were to turn refugees away simply because of their background or religion, or, for example, because they are Muslim, then we would be reinforcing terrorist propaganda that nations like my own are somehow opposed to Islam, which is an ugly lie that must be rejected in all of our countries by upholding the values of pluralism and diversity.

And finally, this crisis is a test of our common humanity -- whether we give in to suspicion and fear and build walls, or whether we see ourselves in another.

"Q"Nit of the Day: Muslim accused of jihad bombs in New York City and New Jersey pleads not guilty

DECEMBER 20, 2016 11:15 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER

By his own lights, he isn’t guilty. He isn’t a terrorist; he is an executor of the wrath of Allah: “Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people, and remove the fury in the believers’ hearts.” (Qur’an 9:14-15)

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — The man accused of setting off bombs in New Jersey and New York, injuring more than 30 people, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi made his first in-person court appearance Tuesday to face charges he tried to kill police officers before they captured him Sept. 19 outside a bar in Linden, New Jersey….

He’s also accused of detonating a pipe bomb along the route of a Marine Corps charity race in New Jersey’s Seaside Park and a pressure cooker bomb in New York City on Sept. 17. No one was injured in the New Jersey blast; 31 people were hurt in the New York bombing.

4. After another tragedy — this time an alligator snatching a toddler from a Disney World beachfront — CNN’s Brooke Baldwin thankfully had the presence of mind to ask a local animal expert what the alligator was thinking.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.